Investments

CalPERS' Returns Dip

Citadel Hires Morgan's Foreign Exchange Chief

After a year of record growth, Hartford Financial Services wants to expand its 529 college savings business over the next two years by increasing sales and, perhaps, in what would be a shift in strategy, by becoming a plan sponsor in another state.

While the storied Bear Stearns went up for a fire sale of $236 million to JPMorgan last week, less than one-tenth of its trading price, Bear hit another brick wall.

WASHINGTON-Few question the Federal Reserve Board's recent efforts to stabilize the economy, but plenty of people are wondering how much risk the central bank is taking.

Shareholders in a number of large Fidelity mutual funds, most notably the $73 billion Contrafund, succeeded in forcing a proxy vote at press time on whether the company should institute a "genocide-free" investment policy. Insiders did not expect, however, the unbinding measure to pass.

BOSTON-Asset managers will have to adapt their techniques and operations beyond their current business models to survive the shifting demands in the retirement product marketplace.

The price of crude oil and gold fell nearly 10% in less than 36 hours on Wednesday and Thursday, backfiring on investors who were using commodities as a hedge against inflation.

An exchange-traded note that shorted gold saw futures prices rise about 14% last week when gold prices plummeted.

Although they may have lost their battle to get Fidelity Investments to drop mutual funds that are linked to genocide in Sudan, activists say they are emboldened that more than one out of four shareholders voted in favor of their proposal.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission looks into unusually high “put” activity at Bear Stearns beginning on March 7, a handful of hedge fund managers used their magical touch as far back as the summer to foresee what was going down with regards to the subprime exposure at the investment firm. Greenlight Capital , Harbinger Capital Partners , Paulson Investment Co . and Tremblant Capital Group are among the larger hedge funds to place short positions on the stock, undoubtedly inspired by the subprime troubles in its hedge funds, The Wall Street Journal reports. Thus, the hedge fund managers handily earned themselves millions. As The Journal puts it, the asset managers are undoubtedly “trying to contain their joy among all the gloom on Wall Street.” Also this morning, the Associated Press cites a regulatory filing indicating that U.K. billionaire Joseph Lewis is valiently attempting to hold onto his 8.4% stake in Bear Stearns. And further across the pond, the Russian police have raided the Moskow offices of energy joint venture TNK-BP. So while the market gyrates with bad news from Bear Stearns, there is, of course, always the counterplay—as evidenced by JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Lewis, Greenlight Capital and other savvy hedge fund managers. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

Charles Schwab is now offering a program fee rebate on its managed mutual fund portfolios, Schwab Managed Portfolios, to investors who put $25,000 or more of assets into a new or existing retirement account.

Rydex Investments is offering a new fund of funds that offers exposure to the alternatives marketplace to individual investors.

Spitzer Resigns After Prostitution Scandal

Two former designers of sports cars and fighter airplanes have formed the hedge fund Solytix Capital, which focuses on quantitative analytics.

Target-date funds are helping average investors get the same type of service wealthy clients have traditionally had when it comes time to transition a retirement plan from being aggressive to a more conservative plan.

Fund.com Appoints Webster as President

Contrary to popular belief, contrarian funds don't bet against the stock market. They bet against mainstream trends and look for undervalued areas with strong potential.

Cutting edge technology has facilitated the unified managed account (UMA) becoming ubiquitous within the wealth management industry. Today multiple investment products such as separate accounts, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds can all peacefully co-exist, nestled together under a single client registration.

These days the concept of sustainability is a hot ticket into the world of socially responsible investing. Just last week, a trio of investment management firms announced plans to incorporate the components of sustainability investing into their product offerings.